


for the unbeliever

by ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Chronic Pain, Churches & Cathedrals, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fictional Religion & Theology, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sapnap Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), i am obsessed with the church of the dream smp and now you all have to deal with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28509918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes/pseuds/ThatWeirdGuyInTheBushes
Summary: The Holy Land offers protection. A place to go when nowhere else will have you.-Also known as the three times old friends meet in a Church, plus one time they meet outside of it.
Relationships: Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Floris | Fundy & Ponk | DropsByPonk, Sam | Awesamdude & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), dont be fucking weird :), dont ship real people - Relationship
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	for the unbeliever

**Author's Note:**

> I am obsessed with Church Prime and its implications for fantasy world building don't @ me

If Sapnap is entirely honest, he doesn’t believe in Prime. He goes to services when everyone else does and he obeys the rules but he’s never really thought any of it was real. It’s useful, though. A good place to take shelter, when nowhere else will have you.

That’s probably why Bad is here.

He’s praying. Sapnap has always liked watching Bad pray; It’s a process, and it’s nearly always the same. Sometimes, if they’re in together, Sapnap watches his mouth move along to the silent words and tries to guess what Bad is asking for.

Bad says it’s unlucky to tell someone your wishes before they’ve happened. So Sapnap guesses.

It's this complicated thing that Sapnap has never had time for. Stopping in the middle for the water, filling up the bowl, setting at the base of the altar, doing all manner of incantations over it. Bad can't keep his thoughts under lock and key. He has to whisper his prayers.

He sticks his fingers in the water and interlocks his hands. It's not required, this complicated dance, but Bad always does it, because even though it's not required, apparently it's more respectful to keep the full tradition. It's an odd contrast, that delicacy and everything else about Bad. He wears his hunting boots inside instead of leaving them by the door. His clothes are still full of manmade pockets with tearable seams, ready to supply a weapon at any moment.

Back when Tommy still prayed here, he would drink the water. Most people Sapnap has met drink the water. Bad doesn't. Bad is too much of a traditionalist for even centuries-old practices like that.

He sits next to the door, watching the tense line of Bad’s shoulders, not even trying to spy. He’s too tired. He sits for a long time, waiting for the anxiety to drain out of Bad’s posture, but it doesn’t. He sits until Bad stops praying.

He looks at Sapnap with a gentle smile, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Sapnap has never told anyone about his lack of belief, but he thinks Bad has always known. Bad always knows things like that.

“What’re you doing here?” Bad stands up. Sapnap stares at the line between his dark hood and the white walls until it starts to blur together. The tiny bump of cloth on Bad’s arm shows that he still has his knife strapped to it.

He shrugs heavily and looks at the purple stained glass. It’s not good etiquette to take weapons into the holy land, and Bad never breaks etiquette if he can help it. Sapnap is supposed to be the heretical one.

But he supposes that things haven’t exactly been normal lately.

“I dunno. Guess I just wanted some protection. In case.”

A clicking sound echoes through the church as Bad taps his boot on the ground, a nervous tic he’s had since Sapnap met him. He’s always wondered if Bad got it from Dream or if Dream got it from Bad, or if they both somehow developed it before they met each other. “Yeah. I get it. What have you been up to? It’s been a while since we last spoke.” Bad laughs, but it’s wet and empty. Sapnap taps his shoes on the floor and watches the mud flake off. He wonders who he got it from.

“Yeah. I’ve been busy lately. Schlatt and- yeah.”

Bad steps closer and Sapnap notices that he’s rocking on his feet like he always does when he’s nervous. “Sap, I messed up.”

Ice water trickles into Sapnap’s lungs. “What did you do?”

Bad hands are not shaking, because Bad is not the type of person who’s hands shake when he’s scared. That wouldn’t do well for hunting. And unlike George, who’s settled into this new life, and Sapnap, who has never been very much settled into anything, Bad has never stopped being a hunter. “George was literally stealing my things. I didn’t really have a choice, but I still don’t think that I did the best thing, and I don’t...” Bad sucks in a deep breath. “I don’t think Dream will forget this one. And I don’t think that Prime will forgive me.”

Sapnap reaches out on instinct, as if Dream’s hand will ever be open again, and finds the marble pew. He grips it. His heartbeat is so hard that it makes him motion-sick. “What did you do?”

“I killed him. In the Holy Land. And I think Dream is going to kill me.”

Sapnap collapses into the pew, running a hand through his hair and fiddling with his bandana’s knot. “He still has-?”  
  


“Yes, two lives still. No more holding that over our heads.” Sapnap tries to laugh but it gets stuck between his ribs. It was this running bit of George’s, where he would do simple tasks for Sapnap and Bad because they only had two lives and he had three and he had to take care of his elders even though he was older than Sapnap and he won’t get to make those jokes again, and Sapnap can’t breathe and-

“Hey,” Bad whispers. His hand lands on Sapnap’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Sapnap, calm down, it’s gonna be alright. It’s- it’s one life, we’ll be-”

“And you think he’s gonna kill you?”

Bad takes his hand away. “Yeah. I think he will. Not in the Holy Land. But once I leave.”

“Shit.”

“Language. You shouldn’t swear in Church.”  
  
“I know. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”  
  


“Yes.” Bad breathes in deeply. Sapnap watches the glint of the knife on his ankle as he rocks back onto his heels and feels, vaguely, like crying. “Maybe you should, like, skip town, for a couple of days.”  
  
“Why?”

Bad lifts a hand up to his face, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. He turns away from Sapnap. “Dream is… Y’know he likes a spectacle. I doubt this will be much different. If you’re here, you’ll have to come, and I don’t- I don’t want you to see that.”

Sapnap swallows. He’s going to vomit. The Dream he grew up with would never do this, but he thinks that the Dream he grew up with probably died with the Ender Dragon. “Okay.”

Bad pulls him to his feet and in for a hug. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Bad looks more fragile, the next time Sapnap sees him. He doesn’t pray anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appreciated.


End file.
